Web exclusive posted March 16, 2009, at 3:15 p.m. CST

Blackmer recently announced that its X Series sliding vane pumps are being utilized as a part of new offloading/blending skids in Europe to help meet the continent's goals for renewable fuels, such as ethanol.

"While blending biofuels and ethanol at the loading rack has many operational benefits, getting the ethanol into the blending system is just as important an application as moving the finished product out and into the supply chain," Blackmer stated in a press release. "To that end, the United Kingdom subsidiary of a prominent Netherlands-based supplier of precision instrumentation and software systems for bulk-storage operations, developed a range of offloading/blending skids to aid the process."

The offloading/blending skid is a brand new product currently being launched. It features as many as four Blackmer pumps, which have been given ATEX 01T3 certification for use in this operation. Four-inch pumps are used for offloading the ethanol from tanker trucks into storage tanks, and two-inch pumps are used for denaturant blending.

"Blackmer has been a leader in the biofuels markets for several years now, and the use of the X Series on these new skids is another example of this," said Tom Stone, Blackmer's marketing director. "Our sliding vane pumps are used extensively in the ethanol and biodiesel markets at various points throughout the production and distribution supply chain due to true benefits such as high energy efficiency, ease of maintenance and self-priming and dry-run capabilities."

X Series pumps work well for ethanol and biodiesel because the sliding-vane design self-adjusts for wear in order to maintain flow rate; they are both self-priming and dry-run capable; adjustable relief valves protect the pumps from pressures that are too high; and the pumps are easily maintained because the vanes can be removed and replaced without removing the pumps from piping.